Home Construction Booming in Byron

"The Byron market really has exploded,” said local realtor, Kelly Domaille. "You put a house on the market, it should sell within the first four weeks,” she said.

Something she attributes to a ripple effect from the growth Rochester is seeing. "The DMC expectation is that Byron is probably going to double in size over the next 10 to 15 years,” said Domaille.

Kelly says the thing that Byron has to focus on is where will the city continue to grow.

"We just platted another 37 lots in town and we did a plat last year, so our developers are well aware that Byron is the place to build,” said City Administrator, Mary Blair-Hoeft. She has seen 38 housing permits come through the office just this year, "That's slightly above where we were at last year at this time,” she said.

Compared to Rochester’s other neighbors, Byron is booming. Stewartville has had eleven permit requests, Oronoco has had nine, Pine Island has had seven and Zumbrota has only had one housing permit request so far this year.

"Zumbrota we haven't had very many through the year and it's hard to say what causes that because they've had steady growth in the past. Pine Island is the same way, there's lots available, but for just some unknown reason they just have not chosen to build in those cities as much as Byron,” said Thomas Thompson, Building Official.

Byron officials point to the school system, close proximity to Rochester and the affordability of housing.

"It seems like Byron attracts families,” said Blair-Hoeft.

"We just can't keep them on the market fast enough out here which is good. We like to have that demand, it's a good problem to have,” said Domaille.

Byron is looking toward building more infrastructure to accommodate its growth. Just this week a DMC meeting was held to look at what changes can make Byron a more thriving community.